City Council - Regular Meeting

Oh, yeah. I just want.

I didn't really know much about it.

oh good

Well, apparently this thing's not going to work. I didn't know how big it was.

I didn't know how big it was. I didn't know how big it was.

I guess I said bad things about him

.

. . .

Because I always take my weekly post-mortem.

I read my thing every now and then, right? Yeah, I mean, I read it for two or three times. Yeah, I don't have all of your things, so I'm curious to see if you have any questions. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.

First this

I also know that, you know, there's going to be a lot of property value that's going to go down, or there's going to be, like, the small, tiny, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, you know, We're gonna have a discussion Where the chips fall? I can't be any fairer. I really did consider it. I did give this a lot of thought.

I

All right.

Thanks.

Yeah, why not?

I've got six o'clock when we please call the meeting to order Hi welcome everybody I May we have a roll call, please?

Gillis?

Here.

Boggs? Here. Smith? Here. Fleming? Here. Rose? Here. Curzon?

Thank you. Everybody's had an opportunity to look at the minutes. This time I'll take questions, comments, concerns, or a motion. Next motion. Second. I have a motion from Alex, a second from Dave Rose to approve minutes from 7-6-26. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? That will carry. We don't have any correspondence this evening. Herb brings us to you and the cemetery minutes, please. Thank you. We've got a couple of things.

A couple of things that we have done. Some people have indicated that we were behind in our mowing. And all the rain that we had, we were a couple days behind, but we were all caught up and everything is under control there. You're all aware of the remembrance memorial that we're working on, the 2,346 people that don't have markers. We have so far have donations of $1,370 on that, which we're very happy about. We're hiring somebody to take my job. I'm not going to quit.

I'm not going to go away. I've worked too hard on them through the cemetery to just walk away from it. But, you know, I would like to take some vacation time and such.

So we've offered the job to Jim Schreiner to come in and learn how to manage the software plus how to measure graves, how to find graves, etc. So That's in the offing. Other than that, we did have an accident. Muller hit a stone and broke a corner off of it. So Sedgwick is getting back to us on what it's going to take to repair that.

And unfortunately, it's a six foot stone, six by three. So it's not just a simple fix.

But he seems to think that they can correct that. So other than that, WE'RE ROLLING ALONG. QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU. NEW SPEAKER AS FAR AS THE ADMIN REPORT, THE GIRLS IN THE OFFICE HAVE BEEN KEEPING SUMMER UNPLUGGED, ROLLING ALONG. WE'VE HAD NOTHING BUT GOOD THINGS FROM THOSE THAT ARE ATTENDING They are like ducks on a water. They look really calm on top, but I don't ever want to look under the water because I think it's churning pretty good, but very happy with the way that's been going. And we were behind on mowing. We seem to be getting caught up everywhere in town. We had a bunch of trees that are going to start coming down. So thank you. Leads us to old business. First order we have in old business is Discussion, possible action, ordinance on the rezoning. Everybody's gonna get their opportunity to speak. We have a five minute rule. I would like to read the ordinance for the second time and then we will just have a discussion if that's okay with everybody.

Make a motion that we read the ordinance number 2026-14 by title only for the second reading. Thank you, Alex.

That's a second by Dave Rose. And that's going to be a roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Smith. Yes. Fleming. Yes. Rose. Yes.

Thank you. All right. So this is city of Farmington. Ordinance number 2026 dash 14. An ordinance rezoning property at 447 West Fulton Street from I-1 to I-2 heavy industrial and amending the zoning map accordingly. That is your second reading. of 2026-14. We haven't had a crowd like this in a long time, so I know there's some people who have some things to say. First thing I would like to say is that this cannot be considered as testimony, for that was done at the Planning Commission, but we are happy to hear everybody's input. If anybody has anything they'd like to say. Please stand by.

Yes, I am Sarah Beach. I live at 87 North Hickory Street, which is two houses away from this planned rezoning. I have been told by Justin that they are going to have a hydraulic steel press within the building. And then in researching that, I was told online through corporations and you know, regular business that knew what they were talking about, that that was going to bring out 80 to 100 decibels for each time it hits. That's a little loud on like an eight hour shift. I've been told that some of the old riding lawnmowers in town put out more noise than, you know, 75 decibels and they're very noisy. There's a big difference there. They run for a half hour, 45 minutes, and it gets shut off, it's done for a week. And the biggest difference is when he's done, there's an improvement to the city. He's mowed the grass, he's made it look nice. I went through from Wall Street, Wood Street, Oak, Fulton, Court, Pleasant, all the way down to Cedar, and back again. Talked to all the people down through there, which I have found since doing that, a lot of the new people that moved into those houses, which three of them strike there in my neighborhood, that's one, two, and three on the other side of Sydney Park. They moved to those houses because it was a quiet neighborhood, There's a park for their kids to play. But I also found out that there, in that area, are six autistic children. Which, loud noise is what is really one of the biggies on an autistic child. Like I said, with a riding lawnmower, okay, they can put their headphones on. That's a half hour, 45 minutes, hour max. But for one to run all day long, is gonna be a bit much on those children. And that will open the city and everybody concerned into a lawsuit. My granddaughter lives two houses away from that proposed site. She is on the autistic scale for delayed speech. Two houses away from the park on the west end. There are two girls, one's 10 years old, Yeah, there's six on the autistic scale. On Cedar Street, there's a little boy. He's four years old, autistic scale. On Westport Street, autistic. And we have two more of them coming in next month that are going to live behind the Westport. And the reason she's moving here is they're sisters and they're going to raise their children together because It's a quiet neighborhood. It's suitable for the kids. I don't feel that if they're, I've read online where she has put online that they're going to be bringing out 50, 55 decibels is their noise level. They're not gonna be any noisier than Justin. I don't see how it's possible. And I'm just for Farmington expanding. getting jobs, business. I understand all of that, and I'm right behind all of you. I'd rather my son didn't have to drive to Maithleton to work Caterpillar third shift. I just assumed he'd have a nice job right here in town, spend more time with his kids and his family. But I don't see where putting in something that's going to make that much noise, bring even more semis down Oak Street, Fulton Street and Hickory Street, when they come and go, is going to do the city any good because they're going to have to repair those streets and curves that just got put in. And we're all going to have to put up with the noise. And like I said, 95%, I have a signed petition. There's 60-some signatures on there. None of them knew this was going to happen until they read the weekly post. I thank you for listening. Thank you.

Thank you for your time. Anybody else?

expanding Farmington tax revenue putting the big picture gas station restaurants everything to use I just want to know more about it I live less than 100 yards away from my friend I'm a four-year-old I walk up by on that Apple Island to the park everything I want to know just kind of what's going on before a noise ordinance gets you know expanded how long it's going to be you like the property values everything else like that when you but they're granted is what it is in that area of town but JUST WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT IT BEFORE SOMETHING LIKE THAT WOULD GET PASSED AND GET APPROVED.

NEW SPEAKER THANK YOU, CHRIS. ANYBODY? PLEASE.

NEW SPEAKER I LIVE ON OAK STREET. I'M ACTUALLY ONE YARD AWAY FROM THE BUILDING. SHE'S ACTUALLY MY NEIGHBOR. I LIKE HER REAL WELL. But I just, I didn't know anything about this until Sarah was knocking on my door. My concern was, what are they actually going to be making this fabrication? That is the correct term, right? The fabrication?

You know, I'm just a conduit on this thing that the people that talk to are sitting here. So imagine those.

Okay. And it's like, what are they making? Because it's not just the noise. There's also possibly air pollution, the chemicals they use, painting. rust, like what are they making? Are they making steel rods and other stuff? Cutting and bending and all this other stuff. And I realize it's going to only be, I was told it was only going to be like one shift a day. It's not like going to be 24-7. But besides the noise, which is, I mean, I'm going to have a lot of noise, whatever. I can't even sit on my back porch because I can see actually the roof rolling. And, you know, and again, just like they said, I'm all for expanding Farmington and I have a lot of background my family my grandparents lived here spent a lot of time as a child out here um so i just i just kind of like are we getting into something that once it gets going it can't be turned around and there's going to be a lot more a lot more involved than people are aware of you know it's already done so thank you again one

Because we're under 25,000 people we don't have to send So there was a legal notice put in for three weeks On Oak Street

know where this one of the sewers is at all the sand is they put sand around one end and all that sand is sacred so the oak street could not take that pressure as a seminar at all time they wouldn't allow them on port street for a long time now they can only go and gotta go out north blacktop because of the waste so i only leave westport apple alley they got the city got to take care of that that's that belongs to them so that's another expense and the property but property value is going to go down every dollar because they're being kind of annoying and what justin's planet has right now is tolerable they don't go on 24 7. it's just eight hours a day sometimes eight nine ten so i I'm just not in favor of it.

Thank you.

I have one more question.

Okay.

With them saying that it's going to be no louder than what Justin is right now, why does it have to be resound? Because they're saying there's only going to be one or two semis coming in a week, and that's Basically what Justin does now.

So so I think it was the air on the side of caution. Well, that was that was the that was the conversation I had for four or five weeks ago. I don't know. It is this one phrase gives me pause and I want to make sure that I'm a good neighbor.

Well, if they're not going to make any more noise than Justin. Why doesn't it have to be rezoned at all? It doesn't. It could stay commercial.

No, it's industrial.

Light industrial.

Yeah, it's I-1, light industrial.

They have to limit their noise to where the entire neighborhood doesn't have to know they exist every day. And they're not detrimental to the children that are playing in the park. and riding their bicycles up Apple Alley, which a lot of them do. And a lot of them have little scooters, and they use Apple Alley. A lot of them come up Hickory Street and don't bother to look at the stop sign. They just go, which is kind of scary if we're going to have more semis going through.

Valid point, Sarah.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Yeah, I live right there. Next to this building. And I just don't see anything wrong with Farmington trying to have a little something. Look at our town. Uptown, the stores. They're what it used to be. I mean, we gotta do something. You know, it's not gonna be good for Uptown even. You know, it's sad. What it used to be. And there's no reason why Farmington Can't have some of those stores back. You know, it's just... We used to have a taint ship factory. Where were they located at?

Pennsylvania.

No, where were they located at when it first began? Wall Street.

Wall Street.

It was a little house. I think that's how it worked there.

Can I say something? Yeah.

I've heard of Stoughton, baby. I came back to Farmington seven years ago in September after being gone for 22 years, almost 25 years, I guess.

And it's kind of interesting to see the decline of what Farmington is. And I think what you're thinking about here is a major, major manufacturing facility. no more noise than a lawnmower you brought this lawnmower thing up my neighbor's lawnmower will rattle my windows because they're just that darn loud if every one of us mowed at the same time eight hours a day we would outdo any noise conflict that it was going to be created by this are really moving forward is what we really need to think about. And I've been on the county zoning board, and I've been on the Farmington zoning board before I moved to St. Louis. And I'll tell you, there's quite a change. And I think it's time that we try to take a little more interest in what the county's doing and help it move forward.

There's plenty of land around Farmington.

So this is what we were brought this is what we have to discuss at this point so We have to let this go Matt. You got something.

Yeah, I live in the neighborhood as well I'm speaking on behalf of myself not my wife who's a business owner in this town but I Just cannot believe I live in the neighborhood not two blocks away and it's shocking to to hear how anti jobs are and anti-business that some of our city folk that have lived here forever and own property in this town. I think it's a good thing. Employment, they're going to employ people. Those people are going to live in this town. going to possibly live in some of these homes in this town that need renovated you know you know there's a house right beside me and everybody knows that my neighbor just passed away what's going to happen to that house is it going to fall in a pile like like a lot of the other houses in this town or are they going to be you know people that are employed by a local business that will spend their money here um as some of you know my wife owns a business in town and those ladies that work there she's she's increased her employment people that work there they spend money in this town they live in this town and they do things in this town i've lived here forever and i love this whole town and i think to move this city forward that we need more jobs right here and people that will do business uh right here in our town thank you thanks matt yeah one more

i'm all for that too i think most people here said yes they are pro jobs to the town i would just like a presentation on what it's going to be to the neighbors that are directly surrounded by that before this ordinance would get passed and then i i'm less than two my back here is less than 200 feet knew nothing about it i missed it in the paper i seen the paper that they said you contacted neighbors we didn't get contacted i didn't i missed it i i contacted the immediate neighbors

i i sent up i'm supposed to be 200 feet 200 probably maybe 200 feet and how does 35 acre get in this look i'm not perfect look out the back door hey i'm i'm sorry i'm not perfect i do the best i can can we have a presentation i mean they're here ashland justin you guys want to yeah we need to let's limit try to be five minutes just so that we're fair to everybody okay And I'll try not to let ACDC play again.

Those are about to rock. I think a lot of it is just kind of the unknown. We don't know what's going to happen. We don't know how it's going to work out. I ran my machines all day today. If anyone went by there, how loud was it?

I didn't hear it at all.

That's what I'm saying. My presses are mechanical presses. They operate with a big flywheel, a crankshaft, and they make a big That's about 170, 180 decibels in there. And when you wear earplugs, you reduce it down a little bit, but you don't reduce all of it. And that's my shop. His shop is a hydraulic shop. He's gonna run most of all this stuff on a hydraulic. It takes a lot less pressure. It does shake the ground a little bit, but it's not gonna be near as much as invasive as you guys believe. And like many people have said, it's gonna bring opportunities back into the community. We have a lot of houses in that area They've fallen down, fallen behind. Those are some decent paying jobs that should hopefully fill those houses and make those houses look better. No one's perfect. And I don't think we have, I don't think Demetri or I or Ashley here can foresee this future. I mean, one of your concerns is the autism. Well, me and Demetri are both on the scale. It's not so cut and dry that we all have to sit here and have an ax or a grudge. It's more nuanced than that. It's more just trying to bring a business into town to help facilitate a market that his dad looks at and can see uh through the erecting section and you know we're trying to do the best we can so what other questions can i answer i was just going to say can i interject a question yeah so beyond what i spoke of before was beyond the noise barrier which is you know detrimental to some situations but

But what about like, you know, things, what are actually being made? Because it's like, are they being painted? It's a job shop.

You're taking a job shop. You're taking anything you can get somewhere. Right, but I mean, I'm talking about fumes for paint or chemicals or anything like that. Sure. You could have that. I mean, it's a possibility.

They could be painting.

But, I mean, it's not, they're going to have their own insurance adjusters that have to pay attention to their painting and how they handle their chemicals and stuff like that. There's regulations that they have to follow. It's not so cut and dry, we're just a workshop, we're gonna run, put a bunch of chemicals, put a bunch of noise pollution in the air. It's more we're just trying to facilitate manufacturing and production.

I'm sorry I can't stand up, but I have one question for you all. The people in our neighborhood are getting older. That means they've got really bad arthritis, and those machines vibrate, and vibrating really hurts arthritic people. That's what I'm saying on it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, we can't foresee everything and stuff like that. And I don't foresee that being an issue. I don't think the vibration is going to transport. I mean, I think the vibration, if we're running machines, you're going to feel it within 50 feet of the building. Once you're not running machines, you're not going to feel it. Marilyn, I don't think, she lives right next door. I don't think she's going to feel the percussion of the machines on a daily basis. And I do have arthritis already. Do you? Yeah.

It's coming back to me.

Anybody have a question? Will there be any recourse as far as, you know, if this passes, if they go ahead and go into business and then things start happening, like people are smelling things or they are having issues where they keep, you know, is there any legal repercussions? Oh, yeah.

I don't see this I think it's overstating the noise. And also, the biggest complaints would be in the summer when they have the doors open, they want air. And after that, in the wintertime, you're probably not even gonna hear. Like I said today, I have the doors open, and I think I ran 2,500 parts. Nobody really heard me.

Justin, is that building insulated?

Mine? Or theirs? Theirs. no but they have a building within a building so that's just that's the other thing they have a steel building and then they have a enclosure inside that is where all the most of the production is going to take place so there is a building within the building so there is a baffle to reduce the noise to go out ashland how soon this passes how soon are they looking to start um so right now we are working on hammering

right now there's a three phase and we need a fourth phase to make the machine run smoother so that way there wouldn't be or sorry he's my electrical person um but i would hope by the end of the year for us to be fully up and yelling um for the start of this at the start we're only playing out a couple people in the beginning until we can start rolling more

Right now, we're waiting on the design project. We're going from 220 single phase right now to three phase, 480 volts, the 400 amp service. So we're waiting on their engineers to finish their designs and improve everything. And we're trying to figure out whether it's transformed, mounted up on the pole, or we have to pour it back into the transformer center.

Chris, does that answer enough of your question?

I mean, it is.

I mean, I think there's still a lot in the air.

You're not on three-phase today, right? I'm on three-phase. Two-quart, yeah.

So people know steel industry stuff, more power, more voltage, more noise usually.

So, yeah, I could get pretty far into this because I've worked in that industry. And that's some of the stuff I would just like to see as well. You know, I know when it's a fab shop, especially if it's custom fab, Yeah, you're gonna get whatever brought in. They're probably gonna get some lathes, whatever. Could be helpful to me on the farm. I could have some of that.

There's been no presentation.

I mean, I just kind of wanted to see what all the more is going on. How heavy are we talking about what's being fabricated?

You'll never know.

Yeah, it's a job shop, so it could be anything. You're gonna be good for anything you can do.

So I use that as an example because that's something that maybe will produce some of the beans from it. That was just an example. That's not a definitive. That's the one thing you can manufacture.

Is there any manufacturing already lined up yet?

He's got one or two jobs he's been working on right now.

Right now, we've got some duct work for a plant in Florida. And we're working on a water strainer for a plant in Arkansas.

Is the factory in Kentucky right now?

There is no factory. So the factory is there. Where are you working on that? The goal is to do it here.

We're starting with essentially all the pre-stuff, so the design stuff, lining up to get the materials for it, fast forward things.

Everything that takes- Bidding on jobs. They're bidding on jobs. You're not actually, you haven't started any jobs yet.

Did not start any jobs.

Okay. And your dad is going to come up and run this? No, no. I mean, it doesn't really matter, I guess, but I thought your dad was part of this.

He owns the parent company.

Basically, we will be the local people here. They will be the point people that are the subsidiaries of Capstone Equipment, right? Yeah, Equipment.

They're very different. When you started Googling, if you just type in capstone there are so many different capsules that will pop up even if you type in capstone local kentucky i did it and there's several even just there alone and so that's where some of the misconceptions came is because if you don't correctly put in the correct name when you're googling you will find stuff for other companies that have similar names all right so does anybody else have anything to add

Yes.

It's not a question.

This is Avery up here. I live on Westport, but further down. So my stepson is on autism scale, has been since kindergarten. He's in high school now. And I'm just going to say that, yes, it's very much a scale that can bother some and not bother others. However, I will say being consistent with noise and being familiar with the noise does reduce anxiety down almost to nil. Other things I have that I thought about, I messaged Ashley directly outside of this, because I just wanted to know. She told me about the noise, where it's just from one to two. I did a little research on my own, and there are ways to reduce the noise within the situation. Also with people, it does not, those who are not working, it doesn't affect you as much, However, the proposed runtime hours for the shop are during a regular birthday. It does not include holidays, it does not include weekends. So we still have a timeframe where there's no noise during the day. Summer would probably be the biggest impact for community members that have children. And that's just something, I guess, for us to think about. However, if your parents are working or you have your TV going, cancels out a lot of that noise. Other things that I was thinking about when I said questions was light pollution. I know previously there's been businesses that have caused a little bit of light pollution issues. I was just wondering about what that would look like for this building rezoning. And then, I think that was the only question I had, was would this build light pollution for the community and

Thank you for giving an overview of that I

So kind of a tie on what Justin said. My husband and I are going to be the ones that are going to be operating this. We're going to be here. We're in the community. We have always been here. I've always been here. I'm born and raised here. I've been here since we had kitchen cook and we had smell kitchen cook in town. I remember those days. You know, I don't want our community to get ruined. I love our community. I just want to help it improve a little bit. I've seen so many business over the years in my short amount of time, just come and go. And it is very sad to see that. I just wanted, I convinced my father-in-law to bring it to Farmington. He wanted to take it to Peoria. And I said, no, I said, let's bring it to Farmington. Let's help our community out. You know, I thought I was doing the right thing by doing this. I just wanted to help this. On top of that, for some of your questions about stuff that we'll be building, yes, we'll be a job shop. We'll be doing stuff like duct work. It's literally just taking these metal and fitting it into a square. Structural steel, a little bit of that. Nothing insane like the huge I-beams that you see for, say, like bridges and stuff. We're only planning on about, I think we figured, a couple of semis a week. We're not doing a day. And that'll mostly be our raw material comes in. Our produced material, flash will come out in smaller trucks. More like a, say like a... Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I need it in layman's terms. Because we don't want to ruin it. We know the low capacities of the road. We know that there's kids around. Hey, I have kids around. My kids go to my grandma's house all the time. And you'll see them out there on the camera. As far as paint wise, we're not going to be really using beans in there. We've already discussed this. We're outsourcing that so that way we did not have that issue in town. We will also not be doing sandblasting in town either. We've outsourced all that so that way it's to another local business, but that way it's not in town so you don't have pollution issues. Is there any other questions? I won't be a good neighbor. You know, my kids, we're actually in the process of getting her tested for autism even. And so we know exactly how that goes. You know, I know she's more sensitive than my doctor is. And so I know exactly how it is. I don't want to be a bad neighbor. And if anyone has any issues once we're up and running, you're still free to call me up and talk to me about it. And I will do whatever I can to help fix it. I don't want to be a bad neighbor.

My question is, if it's going to be that simple and that lightweight, everything, you know, low decibels, everything just coming in and going out, then why do you need to be some heavy industrial?

Because of the wording of our organization.

Not if it's already light industrial, but if you're planning on a low noise level, no painting, The sandblasting's going to be elsewhere. And two semis a week, like Justin.

The short answer is we don't need to have every zone to do the business, but in the interest of being a good neighbor and making sure we cover all of our bases and comply with everything that we're supposed to, we thought it would be safer to have a zone. I too.

So are you planning on going into a heavier Things in the future so don't you do job?

We've already discussed it and if we get to the point where we've outgrown the shed Larry plan buying or producing another location Well, okay when you start going and you have a noise problem

And we come to you to tell you about a noise problem or what is going to happen.

Well, first, after you tell me what kind of noise problems you're having, I would go and start getting quotes if I have to to figure out how to have anything to do to decrease the noise.

There is noise back lane and stuff you can do. Yeah. I realize you're on a limited floor plan there.

The neighbor, you know, Jacob was trying to sell the house there.

owns most of the front yard there and everything now that'd be concerning for him he's moved up north to sell his house because that's you know throw a pebble at that one but um you know maybe you guys got that for office or something um but yeah you guys would be more limited i mean the stuff is your initial bringing stuff that's probably as long as it's gonna be probably gonna be fine i mean you get big shears you get big presses if you start punching two inch holes out of half inch steel that's gonna

because I know it's about the decibel level. So yes, some of that stuff does have higher decibel level, but you also have to factor in the building itself because that increases the decibel level that will be exiting the building. The difference between the I1 and I2 is the I1, you don't hear the noise off your property line.

And you can clearly hear Justin, you're there.

And that's why we're trying to change it to an ITU.

Just be on the same side. But Justin doesn't go eight hours every day.

No. But it's just him working the shop.

You say I don't have stamina? No, I'm just saying.

I'm just saying it's not. What's the difference between every day or three days a week, though?

I mean, it's bigger.

I live pretty close. I've been friends with Justin for a lot of my life. Of course, I came up here very concerned.

I've never heard Justin shop in my house.

I mean...

Does anybody know what the noise level is in the room right now? It's surprising what people see on that. We're probably at about 40, 45, 55 to 65. Nobody's talking.

My point is I did the math okay from 120 decibels in the center of the building To the wall you get 97 at the wall the wall provides about 38 decibels noise attenuation after that the 50 decibel line is The nearest property 55 decibels noise as demonstrated in That was the ghost of John Patterson That person

All right. Does anybody have any additional questions? Just a quick one.

I don't know if this is a question to you or to her or a combination of.

Is there a way of conducting the transportation of these trucks? Will they be coming down center through town? And most of the trucks, like I said, I can see the stop signs at Oak Street and the store. Most of the semis are over there. Every once in a while, a semi will come down Oak Street. And boy, that guy struggles like you would not believe.

They shouldn't be on Oak Street. But what ultimately, and National and I have talked, is that, you know, if we have to rebuild Apple Alley.

Yeah, because it's going to hold the week.

And that is where, ultimately, that's where I'd like to see it come. And, you know, in and out. Because Fort Street is good. because Apple Alley comes out right where they turn left on the north black top, turn right on Apple Alley. If we can widen that and make sure that it's a truck way. So in a perfect world.

So I've got our engineering firm coming out to

to give me all the specs and what we need to do.

Yeah, because Jacob, when he first moved in there, was asking me if I knew anything about it. I've lived there 23 years, and my grandparents were there.

Your grandparents were before that. Exactly. They've been here since then.

We've been in that house since the late 50s.

So Maurer Stets will come out. They'll tell me what we need to do. We'll get with Ashland and decide what's the best course of action. But ultimately, the road's good to North Blacktop if they can take a right on to apple alley and then get turned around and go back out the same way and we frankly we spent four hundred thousand dollars on oak street last year that was good so yeah and and it needed every penny of it absolutely did all right we'll figure it out because i've got Mauerstutz will give us a plan. They're really good at that.

Well, right now the semis generally come up Oak Street, turn on Fulton Street, stop at Justin's, and they've been leaving on every street, which is a challenge for the best.

Well, a left turn in the semi is always a challenge as well. Yeah, so I've got Mauerstutz looking at that for us.

All right.

Everybody said their piece? ANYBODY CARE TO MAKE A MOTION ON THIS ORDINANCE?

NEW SPEAKER I'LL MAKE A MOTION TO ACCEPT THE PROPERTY AT 447 WEST FULTON STREET FROM I1 TO I2 HEAVY INDUSTRIAL.

NEW SPEAKER IS THERE A SECOND?

NEW SPEAKER I'LL SECOND IT.

I HAVE A MOTION FROM LESLIE TO ADOPT ORDINANCE 2026-14. I HAVE A SECOND FROM ALEX. THAT'S GOING TO BE A ROLL CALL, KRISTY. NEW SPEAKER GILLIS? NEW SPEAKER YES.

NEW SPEAKER BOGG? NEW SPEAKER NO. NEW SPEAKER SMITH? NEW SPEAKER YES. NEW SPEAKER FLEMING? NEW SPEAKER NO. NEW SPEAKER ROSE?

NEW SPEAKER YES.

NEW SPEAKER THAT'S THREE YESES, TWO NOES.

that will carry all right thank you it doesn't it doesn't because they have petition on file um which i haven't seen but which i assume is uh which raises the computers of those holding offices all right so so you gotta have four can i vote or is it because well here's one of the problems normally you couldn't because half of the alderman voted in favor um but because of this petition it takes it and says that uh Requires them a favorable vote of two-thirds of the alder person or trustee of the municipality then holding off. That's what requires the affirmative vote of that many. And it specifically refers only to alder persons, which is not you.

Bill's earned his money tonight. All right. So that doesn't say that I won. That does not pass. So we will carry on nonetheless. It requires two because of the petition, it requires two thirds of the city council members to vote in the affirmative. And I don't count that you have a quorum, right? i do have a quorum but it takes two two-thirds which is well you know we've got six so it takes four since we're still missing a council member could we table this until the next council meeting 100 we can do that right i don't i don't know if we can if we've already made a motion can we withdraw a motion sorry it's okay IT CAN ALSO STAY I-1. IT'S ALREADY I-1. SO WE CAN EITHER VOTE TO RECONSIDER, WE CAN LET IT DIE.

THREE IS YOU CAN MOVE TO RECONSIDER IT IN THE NEXT MEETING. YOU CAN HAVE THAT ON THE AGENDA, TOO. IT IS I-1.

If it's not going to make any more noise, then...

Excuse me, does that mean that Matt was on that?

Yes. We can allow it to fail. We can vote to reconsider. We can still vote to reconsider it next time as well. Make a motion that we vote to reconsider. I have a motion to reconsider the vote. Is there a second? Second from Dave. That's going to be a roll call. Bill is right here. Bill.

All right.

Boggs Smith Fleming Rose. So this mean that we can bring it back at the next meeting? Yeah, that was five to reconsider the vote. And I will send you this petition as well, so you have it. All right. Let's move on. What do you think? I still have some other old business. This is a discussion of possible action of ordinance 2026-16, an ordinance establishing procedure for water billing adjustments. And I'd like nothing more to read this by title.

Make a motion that would be ordinance number 2026-16 by title.

a second that is a motion by alex a second by dave rose it is going to be a roll call to read 2026-16 by title only gillis yes boggs yes smith yeah fleming yes rose yes so this is city of farmington ordinance number 2026-16 an ordinance establishing procedures for sewer bill adjustments That is your first reading of Ordinance 2026-16.

I'd like to make a motion on that one.

Can you comment on that? Sure, Mike. Comment away.

Mike Cecil. The watering season, I use it quite a bit in the garden. The season's basically six months long. It's about the beginning of October, which is garden, coolant, landscape, that kind of stuff, watering season. uh currently we're allowed to do it uh once a month just add up however many times we do it in a month we submit it each month and that doesn't seem to be a problem internally it's not too big a problem uh if it needs to be reduced i'm mainly concerned about that just twice a year because it requires the homeowner to really keep track for a long period of time especially if it's divided up the way the woman says june and december As an example, today I paid my water bill. We had to replace our pool, and I was billed at $208. The adjustment, I only paid $72.

So it can be a pretty big difference in your bill.

If there is a need to reduce it, I think six is perfectly fine, but if there is a need to reduce it, since there's a six-month period, I would suggest maybe doing a minimum of three, which would allow homeowners to improve in May, June, July, August, September, October. I'd give you three. And you might add a fourth just so if something outside of that boundaries happened. So I would basically propose instead of twice a year, four times a year. If for some reason two has to be the number, it should not be June and December. December is well past the watering period. That would mean people would be moving on to July, August, September, October, November, December. You have six months. Oh, probably one of the four of those that have water on it. But at that point then, the city would be willing to be money by turning that into a sewer bill. And you guys would have to be keeping track of the negative balance.

No, it's really, I mean, yes, I know you're up here a lot to turn in your reads. Well, that's fine. As long as you spell my name right, it's all I really care about. But it's really time consuming. And you are pretty accurate on yours, Mike. We have people that show up and say, well, you know, I filled my pool. It needed, you know, seven inches. So I estimated to this much. And then we pull, you know, so then we have to pull the reads and do the math. Well, and it, and it does. Um, but it's also, you know, we went from three office people to two office people, um, in the, you know, I think that's plenty, but they are plenty busy. Um, they've been, they've been really busy this summer. Um, and it, it just, seems like they're chasing their tail i we did a lot of research most municipalities do it once a year and around here do it once a year um and and we don't have any rules about this adjusting whatsoever you know it's just that well this is the way we've always done it And so we're trying to put some structure in this.

You could do it every day if you wanted to take a total up to them. Well, then they told me, you know, we're going to change it to once a month.

So that was they they were trying to buy themselves some grace. And it's just turned out that, you know, we've got a three inch file in there of reads and things that she has to do. So so your point is noted. You know, the council wants us to change this. We can.

I just think two is too few, and it should not be June and December if you're going to keep it two.

December is two months past the watering period. This isn't so much about watering. We do more reads on people that come and ask for forgiveness on, hey, Mike, we had a pipe break. We had a toilet that ran for six weeks. And we're also trying to, you know, help our citizens as best we can with that as well.

How can you read your meter? Because my meter is just a black thing.

You shine a light on it, and it lights up the numbers. You just got to put it under the light, and then it'll show you the current reading. Then when you're done, you just put it right on again, and it shows your new reading. You just have to illuminate it. So, I don't know.

No one ever told me that. Thank you for that question, because I didn't know. I didn't know that. Yeah.

Sometimes it's got to be a pretty good flashlight, but you have to put it right on.

The city is really, I mean, taking the word of the customer per se?

Well, so Tracy does a lot of research and looks at averages. It's really time consuming. So the school has a meter. There's a gentleman on Apple Street has a meter. He knows exactly what he used for watering. And that's also part of the ordinance is I'd love for everybody who's going to do this to spend 20 bucks to get a meter. I'm looking for a batch of old stock somewhere that maybe somebody will sell us for a reasonable price. I thought they replaced all the meters in town. For a meter, put a meter on the hose. So it measures the output for 20 bucks on Amazon. You can put a meter on your hose. It tells you exactly what came out of it. and then you can you can note that and say hey tracy this is how much water i used instead of saying well you know i put three inches of water in my pool and it's you know 24 feet round why don't i have my hose but i use the city's meter it's in my house well see you know how to do it a lot of people don't are you doing the inside meter or the outside it's down in the basement okay so the outside meter we can't read it because it's but but you can the inside

it's all done it's all done by radio signal but but for 20 bucks you can get something that screws onto your hose and measures exactly what goes on and this is also anecdotally what our attorney has for Peoria sanitary district they use the same kind of method for this and and it's adjusted once a year it's adjusted once WATERING OUR BUILDING IS WATERING PLANTS WHATNOT IT'S A METER THAT GOES ON TO THAT THAT'S USED FOR THINGS THAT WATER THAT ISN'T GOING TO GO INTO THE SEWER THAT THEY HAVE TO TREAT RIGHT SO YOU KNOW DOES GET TO CALL IN AND SAY HEY USE THIS MUCH MARCH SEPTEMBER WOULD BE NOTHING IN MARCH I MEAN YOU SHOULD DO IF YOU'RE GOING TO DO TWICE IT SHOULD BE LIKE JULY AND OCTOBER BUT I WANT TO DO SIX MONTHS

You understand I'm trying to get to six-month periods, and it's not about... So, you know, I could have just said once a year, and then we'd be done. We're not even going to have this conversation. I'm trying to be... I had to do that for three or four months. Council? Do you want me to send it back for amending and we'll bring this back next time? You're fine. Are we going to decide on the two months?

Quarterly? Yeah. March? June?

Can we do every four months?

Three times a year?

Three times a year. April, starting in April?

Yeah, every four months.

April is when people, well, May is typically when people start doing this stuff. So April, April, August, December?

Yeah, I think so. Sounds good.

I WILL SEND IT BACK TO BE AMENDED. WE'LL DO THIS AGAIN NEXT TIME. ALL RIGHT. THAT'S THE END OF OLD BUSINESS. LET'S TALK NEW BUSINESS. I HAVE THE FIRST ITEM OF NEW BUSINESS, DISCUSSION POSSIBLE ACTION, ORDINANCE 2026-15. I DON'T KNOW WHY I CALLED THIS A SECOND READING. I OBVIOUSLY HAD A STROKE OR SOMETHING IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS. THIS IS A FIRST READING FOR AN ORDINANCE APPROVING AND AUTHORIZING THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL agreement with the Farmington Public Library.

And I really want to read this one by . I make a motion to read Ordinance 2026-15 by Tyler .

Second. That's a motion by Nate, a second by Alex. That's a roll call, please.

Gillis.

Yes.

Boggs.

Yes.

Smith. Yes. Fleming. Yes. Rose. Yes.

All right. This is City of Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois, Ordinance Number 2026-15, Farmington TIF District, an ordinance approving and authorizing the execution of an intergovernmental agreement by and between the City of Farmington and the Farmington Area Public Library District. That is your first reading of Ordinance 2026-15. I make a motion that we waive the second reading of Ordinance 2026-15. Second. Thank you, Nate. Second by Dave Rose. That is a roll call. Please to waive second reading.

Gillis?

Yes.

Boggs? Yes. Smith? Yes. Fleming? Yes. Yes.

Thank you.

Is there a motion to adopt? Motion to adopt ordinance 2026-15.

Second. I have a motion by Nate, a second by Alex. That's going to be a roll call, please.

Gillis. Yes. Boggs. Yes. Smith. Yes. Fleming. Yes. Rose. Yes.

Thank you. Next item I have for new business is another ordinance. Discussion possible action. Ordinance number 2026-17, an ordinance directing sale of real estate of 66 West Fork Streets, also known as the Lots across from the Post. I'd like to make a motion to make an ordinance number 2026-17. I second. So a motion by Joey, a second from Alex. That's a roll call, please.

Gillis?

Yes.

Boggs? Yes. Smith? Yes. Fleming? Yes. Rose? Yes.

This is City of Farmington, Illinois, ordinance number 2026-617, an ordinance directing the sale of real estate 0504-11-208-006, also known as 66 West 4th Street in Farmington, Illinois, 61531. That is your first reading of ordinance 2026-17. I commend. A motion from Joey, a second from Dave Rose to waive the second reading of twenty twenty six to seventeen. That is a roll call, please.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Thank you.

Second. Thank you, Joey. With a second by Dave Rose to adopt twenty twenty six to seventeen. That is a roll call, please.

Gillis?

Yes.

Boggs? Yes. Smith? Yes. Fleming? Yes. Rose?

Yes. Thank you. That is the end of new business. Leads us to committee reports. Jenny's absent this evening. Joe, you have any public safety? I don't have any public safety, Mayor. Thank you. Nate, sewer? I'm into my sewer. Thank you. Alex, street sidewalks, garbage? Not in the report, sir. Thank you. Leslie, parks and rec?

A couple of things, not with rec. Several people have noticed the weeds are really, really bad in the city parking lot by the museum. And they need, you know, it'd be nice if the weeds would be sprayed or pulled. So if you could pass that along. And then also the potholes on North Gold Street are really, really bad.

They've been working the spray patch. Okay. So.

So, just haven't gotten to it yet. No. Those are the only two things I have.

Could I possibly add one thing? Sure.

Sure.

The alligator head at Weller Park has been cracked and breaking more.

Which park? The Demet Park.

Sorry, the Demet Park.

My daughter did not sleep until last night.

The Demet Park. The what again? I'm sorry.

The bouncing alligator.

The spring one.

Yes. Yeah, the head on it is breaking more and more. Yes.

It's been cracked for some time. WELL, SO, I MEAN, WE COULD PROBABLY REMOVE IT AND THEN PURCHASE A NEW ONE. YEAH.

YOU WANT TO GO CHECK THAT OUT? I WILL. THANK YOU.

I'LL CHECK IT OUT. IS THERE EVER GOING TO BE A POSSIBILITY OF ALL THE BRICK SIDEWALKS EITHER BEING TAKEN To the left of my I have two properties and nobody can use it and it's just grass over I you know, it's it's a Next year we have a sidewalk program planned.

Yes You know so that it would be a split between the homeowner and the city through the TIF district You know, well, I think what we're planning on is like, okay, I don't have the exact prices, so don't hold me to these numbers, but we're going to do X number of feet of sidewalk. It's going to be a first come first serve thing, but it'll be a, Hey, this is going to happen in eight weeks. Please sign up because yes, brick sidewalks are wonderful, but when they start to deteriorate, we don't have those skills anymore. I don't think. So is that good?

Can I ask a question? Yeah. The park signs?

Yeah, they're ordered.

They're ordered? Yep. OK. Marilyn was asking me when I was talking to her about the project about getting stop signs on Apple Alley on each end so that people would actually stop and look for the kids and the traffic when they come in and out of that alley.

We can put them up, doesn't mean people are going to stop at them.

No, they don't stop on Hickory Street either. That's what I told her. I told her I would ask that question.

I have it written down.

Thank you.

Dave, anything from you on First Philly Grounds and Buildings? Nothing report, sir. All right. Has anybody got anything to close us out? Yes, Matt.

Just under general comments. I was here about a year ago and asked about striping of Lightfoot Road out by the school. It still hasn't been striped. It's really faded. I'd like to see Whitefoot Road striped. It's on the list. Some of our MFT funds. I'd like to see it done by IDOS specs. That's all I got.

Anybody else? Sure.

Everybody else?

um i forget what ordinance number is but about the burning in town that seems to be a hot topic anymore and both early and figuratively um i feel like the months that were selected back when the ordinance was made is not really feasible voice these days i know other towns have where if there's a right flag then you just don't burn with common sense. I didn't know if those views were going to get that for me at all.

I agree with that, too. If the city can burn during those times within city limits, why cannot fire engines in public?

Mainly what we're burning, Chris, is everybody's trees. Oh, I get it. I get it.

So I love having that right there, but do you know what that does when there's a sound wind and I have my windows open? Oh, it's horrible. Because I'm straight north of that place. It is great to be able to go 100 yards and dump trees, but I'll look at it.

How's that?

All right, Mike.

April, August, December.

I actually like your quarterly idea better than that, but I don't know if that's something you guys can discuss. Quarterly would be a little easier for people to remember, I think.

It would be a little more usable. that can still be. I'll send it for amending. And I had a question probably for Mr. Gillis. Yes.

Do you guys know when they're going to start repainting the roads after all the harm?

So I know this. So the Illinois EPA is involved and they have to issue permits now to hook up houses to the new water lines. So they're saying 90 to 100 days. they're going to start on Idlewild because it's been torn up the longest. And once they issue the permits, they'll get them attached and then they will pull the gravel out and they'll put new asphalt back in.

Are they doing that in the state then?

No, it's the contract. But Illinois American puts stuff better than they find it.

And my daughter was going to ask a question too. She did a church for business on the cross, the old Catholic church.

When will they complete that project? WHEN IT'S COMPLETED. IF YOU WANT THE GUY'S NUMBER, I'LL GIVE IT TO YOU.

AND THEY GET LETTERS.

ALL RIGHT. SHERRI?

I WAS JUST GOING TO SAY, I DON'T KNOW IF Y'ALL CAN HEAR THIS THING BACK HERE.

THERE'S A PROBLEM WITH IT. WE KNOW. IT'S THE GHOST OF JOHN PATTERSON. It's got a bad condensation pump. They're ordered. They're going to get it fixed. Look, it's better than it used to be at 180 degrees in here. You guys might not have talked as long tonight. Anybody else?

Motion to adjourn. Second.

Motion to second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Thanks, Bill.